Extract text from QEMU disk images (QCOW)
To convert QCOW disk images to another format, you need QEMU or other Disk Image software.
To convert other file formats to the "Virtual Machine Disk Image" file type, you need software like QEMU or a similar tool.
A .qcow file is a QEMU Copy On Write disk image used to store the contents of a virtual machine's hard drive. It was originally developed for the QEMU virtualization and emulation platform. For technical details, see the QEMU Wikipedia page.
The original .qcow format is functionally obsolete. It lacks support for modern virtualization features like multiple snapshots, zlib compression, and AES encryption. It is also largely incompatible with commercial hypervisors like Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware Workstation. Because these files often exceed tens of gigabytes and use a legacy thin-provisioning structure, moving them between incompatible host environments is a frustrating limitation.
To use a .qcow file in modern QEMU or Linux environments, convert it to the updated QCOW2 standard. For use in VirtualBox, convert to VDI. For VMware compatibility, target VMDK. If you need to mount the virtual disk on a Windows host using Hyper-V, convert it to VHD or VHDX. If you simply need raw data extraction, convert to RAW, but note that this will consume significantly more disk space as it removes thin provisioning. Drag and drop your file here to analyze and convert it securely right in your browser.
Convert.Guru analyzes your QCOW file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted QCOW2, ISO, IMG, ZIP, VMDK, RAW, OVA, VDI, VHD and VHDX files.
If you want to convert QCOW file to VMDK, RAW, QCOW2, OVA, ISO, VDI, VHD, VHDX, IMG, DMG, HDD or VBOX, you can use QEMU or similar software from the "Virtual Machine Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert VFD, DMG, OVA, IMA, VBOX, ADF, PVS, VHD, OVF, ISO, DSK or IMG files to QCOW, try QEMU or another comparable tool in the "Virtual Machine Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our QCOW converter.